Friday, January 13, 2006

Graphic Novels are an absolute joy, when well-done. One of my favorite illicit pleasures is reading graphic novels in stores like Barnes and Noble, mainly because they are grotesquely over-priced in comparison to other media.

Boingboing points to the exquisitely well-drawn FELL #1 graphic novel from Warren Ellis, available online for free - but available in stores for just $1.99 (Interview with Warren Ellis) Apparently FELL is "an experiment by Ellis in order to create a more affordable comic by producing a lower page count than normal. This is balanced by a format of nine panels per page in order to compress the story into the smaller size. Each issue is also a self contained story, supplemented with a text section where the author expands the story's background, provides excerpts from the script, and (tentatively) answers reader e-mail."(Fell on Wikipedia)

The plot line is very noir, in keeping with much of graphic novel tradition.

Detective Richard Fell is transferred over the bridge from the big city to Snowtown, a feral district whose police roster numbers three-and-a-half people (one detective has no legs). Dumped in this collapsing urban trashzone, Richard Fell is starting all over again. In a place where nothing seems to make any sense, Fell clings to the one thing he knows to be true: Everybody's hiding something. Even him.

This is the first in a week full of #1 issues being brought to readers by Newsarama